Reuters
November 16, 2004

The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown has said that Iraqi debt forgiveness is likely to be an issue to be decided by the Group of Seven leading powers. ‘It will probably be a matter that will have to be raised in the G7 later,’ Brown told a briefing during a meeting of European Union finance ministers.

US Treasury Under Secretary John Taylor said last month that creditors must forgive an “enormous amount” of Iraq’s $125 billion in debt, with an agreement to forgive $80 billion certain to be reached by the end of the year.

The G7 rich nations split over Iraqi debt forgiveness at a meeting in Washington earlier this year, with the US and Britain pressing for a full write-off while France and Germany want only 50 per cent to begin with.